Backing support for wall veneer



United States Patent XO The present invention relates to a veneer wall construction and is concerned more particularly with improved means and methods for producing a brick or.

stone veneer which can be applied directly to'the walls, either inside or outside of a building.

In the building trades, it is highly desirableto provide an inexpensive easily installed and manufactured veneer construction of thin brick or stone which when finished will give the actual appearance of a full sized brick or stone wall, but which can be applied easily and directly to the frame of la building or to a nished Wall surface of a building so that the weight will be distributed entirely over the wall frame and where the work of laying the stone veneer is reduced to a minimum.

To provide for such a brick or stone veneer construction, the instant invention contemplates the provision of a building or assembly sheet into which the stone or brick can be placed and held in position, before the application of mortar to fill the joints, and thereafter mortar can be applied to ll the joints and to aid in maintaining the stone or bricks in place.

It is a general object of the invention, therefore, to provide an improved construction and method for placing a stone or brick Veneer ou a wall surface.

Another object of the invention is to provide a veneer construction which is economical to manufacture and which facilitates the use of somewhat irregular stone segments in the veneer.

A further object of the invention is to provide a building sheet or assembly means for a veneer wall surface of the above character.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an assembly sheet of the above character which is adapted for use with different sizes of stone or brick which are applied in a random fashion and irregular pattern, and which facilitates the assembly of the stone in place by indicating the size and/or color of the stone or brick which are to be placed in a given location.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a fragmentary elevational view of the veneer as it would appear on the walls of a building, the veneer being a stone veneer with dilerent sizes of stone laid in a random pattern.

Figure 2 is an elevational view similar to Figure 1, but showing the assembly sheet as it would be applied Y to the wall before the insertion or mounting of a stone l r brick therein. Figure 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken in a lane indicated by the line 3--3 in Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary perspective view showing e resilient retaining strip.

f Figure 5 is a fragmentary view illustrating the ilexility of the retaining strip in the mounting of irregular one.

" Figure 6 is a perspective view of an angle shaped piece ice of stone such as may be used in turning a corner with the building assembly sheets of the instant invention.

Generally the invention includes an assembly sheet of exible character and of a standard size which can be nailed or otherwise secured to the wall to be covered with the veneer, and including means for securing more or less regularly shaped pieces of veneer-type stone or brick in place. In general this assembly sheet comprises a flexible layer or sheet such as building paper, for eX- ample a building paper known in the trade as Sisal Kraft, with backing strips or lath secured in parallel relation to one side thereof to the building paper or llexible sheet and to the supporting strips.

Referring to the drawings, the assembly sheet of the instant invention includes a exible sheet or strip 10 of a desired rectangular size, having on one side a series of parallel backing strips 11 made of suitablematerial such as wood lath, and on the other side a series of retaining strips 12. The retaining strips 12 and the wood lath 11 are secured on either side .of the sheet 10 by securing means such as nails 13 having their ends clinched over beneath the wood lath. The spacing apart of the wooden backing strips 11 from center to center is preferably a uniform dimension suitable to standard sizes of building stone or brick, and for example they are shown as being spaced 4 from center to center. The metallic or retaining strips 12 preferably are formed with a series of pairs of olf-set ngers or U-shaped bends .projecting outwardly from the building strip, a pair of bends 16 being placed on 4 centers, and being of a dimension to t in the normal space allowed for mortar between brick. This normal space for mortar foi-use with a 2% basic brick is V2. Each pair of resilient deformable U-shaped retaining elements 16 preferably occupy approximately one-half of the width of the strip and are offset with respect to each other to reduce the overall length of material used in making the retaining strips and to enable individual movement or adjustment of the respective retaining elements of a pair in cooperating with the different adjacent stones held thereby. Preferably, these retaining elements 16 are bent slightly from the perpendicular with respect to the portion of the strip 12 engaged with the building paper to provide for gripping a stone or brick which is slightly undersized with respect to the standard. Because of their U-shape, they retain their resilience and gripping action on a brick when forced therebetween even though they must be offset somewhat by use of a suitable tool such as a screwdriver in the operation of forcing a brick therein. Also, the U-shaped retaining elements or keys on retaining strip 12 can be hammered llat (see Figure 3) so as to enable use of a stone which is a multiple of the uniform dimension selected in making the building strip.

Preferably also the assembly sheet or building strip is constructed to provide for instruction of the mason or other worker in assembling the stones into strips by having printed on the layer of paper indicia of the pattern, for example, rectangular indicia 21 corresponding to the size of stone or veneer piece which is to be laid in each location. Thus the strip as shown in Figure 2 has printed thereon outlines of the size of the stone shown assembled thereon in Figure 1. In this way the building strip or assembly sheet can be used in selling a packaged unit to a user so that he will have no difculty in properly assembling the different size stones supplied to him in a desired pattern. These rectangles can also have printed thereon color indicia, giving an indication of the color of stone to be placed in a given location, where a color pattern is to be followed in erecting a wall.

Preferably the building strip is assembled of fabricated on a table having suitable grooves for receiving the laths 11 in appropriatefspaced relation, the backing or exible i buildingpaper 10 is then, placedover thelaths,.the.metal` strips 12 are put in place and then the nails 13 are applied leaving certain of the apertures 17 in the retaining strips freefor later-nailing. to, backing, forrexamplei. as

indicated at 18j in Figure 3. After fabricationyoflthe ase sembly sheet, it can be shipped infrolled condition; to the site of the building towhich itpis to ,be-applied,. .and there unrolled and nailed to the wall :ofithefbuilding or to the; framework. Thereafter the stonepieces indicatedatlQj are placed in the desired design on the building wall: by-4 insertion between the resilient retaining. clips orvkeys 16'.y After the entire veneer or desired :portion thereof isas-` sembled in place on the wall, the` usualfformV ofrlrnortar 22l is used to-ll the cracks, theaspacesf,encompassed'iby the U-shaped retaining Keyser extensions 16, andfto extend slightly between the stone or-bricktand'the/-wall surface. This completes the operationwin constructing a veneered Wall, and results in a wall surface giving-the exact. appearance of a iinished'wall of jbricks or,` stones of complete thickness.

Figure 5 illustrates the exibility of :the assembly sheetv ofthe invention in accommodating the irregularity of thin pieces of natural stone, wherehighly regular surfaces are impractical, and the offset nature of the retaining keys 16 at each retaining location provides for the necessary de formation of these elements into substantially parallel relation when required; Corners of the building are turned either by overlapping the stone or brick in the usual fashion, as by using a special preformed corner element such as shown in Figure 6 at 20. This element 20 is L-shaped and has the two portions of the L conformingA the invention, it willv be apparent thatthe invention isf 4r; capable of modification and variation from the form shown, so that it should bem limited vonly by the scope of the claim appended hereto. -t

I claim:

In an article of manufacture adapted for use in veneer wall construction for holding building elements on a building wall prior and during the application of masonry therebetween, thezcombination comprising a l sheet of flexible material, a series of substantially parallel substantially rigid backingI strips positioned on the side of said sheet that is adapted :tofacevthe wall, a series of substantially parallel stone retaining strips positioned on the other side of said sheet, means' fastening said backing strips and said stone retainingstrips `to said sheet to form an assembly that is adaptedV to be wound into a roll with all of said strips parallel with the roll and which is adapted to be unwound and secured with the backing strips thereof against the building wall, and said stone retaining strips having-a pluralityof spaced stone engaging keys extending laterally from said last mentioned strips tofricti'onally engage the Y stones and hold theminplacev on the wall whenthefassembly is attached to said wall.

References: Citedk in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

